Student Intellectual Property Rights

The Commonwealth of Virginia requires that all State colleges and universities have patent and copyright policies. The university’s Intellectual Property Rights Policy defines the ownership of patents and copyrights, collectively “intellectual property,” created by State university employees and students.

Students can act in two capacities: as students or as employees. When acting as employees, students can be either agents of the university or an individual university employee. Under certain circumstances, when not acting as an employee, students may own the IP rights to their contributions to works and inventions. When they act as agents, ownership of their works and inventions is determined in accordance with rules of the policy that would apply if their principal had created the works and inventions.

Students who believe the university may own Intellectual Property should consult the university policy described above and additional information available from the Office of Technology Transfer, (757) 221-1751.

Intellectual Property Rights of Others

The university does not permit the recording, dissemination, or publication of academic presentations (including handwritten notes) for a commercial purpose without advance authorization of the course instructor.